Montreal métro worker may face assault charge in language incident

The STM notes that under Bill 101, it is not allowed to require employees to know a language other than French.

Photograph by: Pierre Obendrauf
, Montreal Gazette

MONTREAL - Montreal’s transit authority has launched an investigation and will provide police with surveillance video after a métro ticket-taker allegedly put a passenger in a headlock and punched her during a language spat on Monday.“I’m told there’s going to be a police investigation and there may be an assault charge,” said Société de transport de Montréal vice-chairman Marvin Rotrand. “We will turn over whatever surveillance video police want.”The métro employee is in a hospital and the STM has yet to interview her, he said. It’s unclear if the hospitalization was a result of the incident.The alleged assault is the latest in a string of altercations between passengers and subway employees.Mina Barak, 23, told CBC News that Monday’s incident at the De La Savane métro station began when an Opus machine took her money but did not provide transit tickets.Barak said she asked for help, in English, from the STM ticket-booth employee. A dispute erupted. The agent told her to “go back to your country” and “in Quebec, we can only speak French,” Barak said.She said she immediately called the STM and filed a complaint, returning to the booth to advise the employee, who was knitting. She said she told the agent: “I’m going to make sure you’re going to lose your job for what you said to me.”At that point, Barak said, the employee “got out of the booth and she literally had me in a headlock and she was just punching me.”Jamie Salomon, who happened to be leaving the station when the incident occurred, said the ticket agent “came out of the kiosk, slammed the door and started wailing on” Barak, repeatedly punching her. Salomon said he called 911 and started pounding on a turnstile and yelling in an attempt to stop the fight.Another man intervened, managing to pull Barak out of the grips of the agent, who was “completely enraged and acting like an insane, violent maniac,” Salomon added.He did not hear what prompted the incident, which lasted about a minute. “I couldn’t imagine what it was that (Barak) had said to set her off — she was so enraged.”Rotrand said the STM wants to “instill a sense of pride in all our employees and moreover a sense of customer service being their prime mission. An incident like this clearly is a black eye to us and sets us back.”The STM notes that under Bill 101, it can’t require employees to know a language other than French. Bill 101 provides for exceptions when “the nature of the duties requires such knowledge.”The STM says it will not look into requiring front-line employees to speak English. “My understanding from our legal department is we do not have wiggle room” on Bill 101, Rotrand said. But “insulting customers or refusing to serve customers — it won’t be tolerated.”If an STM employee can’t speak English, he or she must find another way to communicate, he said. That could include providing a pamphlet or map, or asking another employee or supervisor to serve the customer, Rotrand said.He said the issue will be discussed at the STM’s board meeting next month.“I’ll raise the fact that there’s a perception from some in the English community that there isn’t enough backup available to provide riders who don’t speak French with basic information they need,” he said.Other recent incidents:This month, the STM forced an employee to remove a sign at a métro ticket booth that said: “Au Québec c’est en français que ça se passe!” (Roughly translated: “In Quebec, we do things in French”).In July, an STM customer alleged that two métro agents told him: “We don’t serve English people.”In June, Montreal Impact soccer player Miguel Montano said that when he spoke with a métro ticket-taker in English, he was told he needed to speak French and his money was refused.ariga@montrealgazette.comTwitter:@andyriga

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